Big “B” Ballers: Freshman Brock Rider and fifth-grader Eddie Condon run up and down the sidelines as East’s varsity football ball boys

With 23.4 seconds left in the first quarter of the East vs. North Varsity football game, freshman Brock Rider and ten-year-old Eddie Condon felt the rush of a touchdown as they raced down the field — or, parallel to it. 

Their position isn’t on the field. As East’s official ball boys, retrieving the football from behind the goalpost is just another game for Rider and “Big Ed” Condon — brother of senior Audrey Condon and sophomore Rachel Condon.  

Rider’s been running down the sidelines for years. Between playing football in first grade, helping by throwing in footballs on the sidelines of the team his dad coaches and collecting balls for East since 2015 after being offered the job by then-head-coach Dustin Delaney, Rider is familiar with the sound of roaring fans and the gleam of Friday night lights. 

Through Rider’s years as a ball boy cycling through different groups of high school players, he’s grown close with the players — it’s as if he was another member of the team, he said.

Rider’s father has coached football long before coming to East, starting at Bishop Miege then moving to a small high school in Riverton, Kansas, being the head coach. He’s been around the sport for as long as he can remember, it’s one of the biggest parts of his life.

“I just really love football,” Rider said. “I’ve been around the atmosphere for so long, that [football] really is my entire life.”

“I get to experience moments with the team, whether it’s the games, on the sidelines or in the locker room,” Rider said. “They don’t care that I’m a freshman, [the players] treat me the same as they would their teammates or any other player.”

The football players have always been a kind of “big brother” to Rider, paying attention and talking to him even when he first started at eight-years-old. Even though he was always many years younger, the players were always trying to have him involved in some way talking to him or including him in team conversations.

Since Rider is approaching his turn to play for East next year, not on the freshman team, his duties as of Lancer Day — September 16 — have recently been shared with Condon, who will eventually take over the position. 

Like Rider, Condon has a background in football and is the quarterback for St. Anne’s flag football team, the Tigers. He’s befriended head coach Justin Hoover over his two years on the team, as Condon’s dad is good friends with Hoover, who later then approached Condon in April offering him a ball boy position for the upcoming season.

On the field, Brock and Eddie’s duties consist of bringing the quarterback and kicker the specific footballs that they want and retrieving the footballs when needed. Rider assists by telling Condon the perfect times to throw footballs in and when to throw them to the refs during games. Even though Condon is 4 years younger than Rider, nothing stands in the way of their relationship due to Rider’s talent of teaching and helping kids younger than himself.

“[Rider’s] a great person to have Eddie around,” junior and football manager Michael Muller said. “Brock is great with kids and is probably the most perfect person and teacher for Eddie to follow around.”

Rider and Muller —  who coined Condon’s nickname — have helped Condon get in the groove of being a ball boy by showing him the ropes and how to stay out of the way on the sidelines.

Last season and in occasional years prior, Muller was a ball boy, too. He uses his experiences to mentor Condon. 

Muller mainly helps Condon get the reins when he is on the sidelines. He helps Condon look out for certain things like where he should be standing or where he should be moving so he doesn’t get in the way all the time. With Muller’s previous years of ball boy experience, he knows refs can be very picky and a little harsh at times, so Muller guides Condon in the right direction. Making sure he is in the right place at the right time so that doesn’t happen to Condon, like it did to himself.

With the constant help and support from Rider and Muller, in no time Condon will be ready to take over the full-position of ball boy once Rider has leveled up from the sidelines to playing on the big field.